The long-running dispute between South Korea and Japan over apologies and reparations for Korean women used by the Japanese Imperial military as forced prostitutes is often portrayed as a clear divide between the two nations.

But among citizens of each country it’s not that simple. In South Korea, some scholars note that the commonly held view among Koreans that local women were rounded-up by the Japanese military obscures evidence of Koreans taking active roles in setting up and sustaining the network of forced prostitution. Read More »

A recent political furor in South Korea about on-off plans to build a bad-weather shelter on islets controlled by Seoul but also claimed by Tokyo put a spotlight back on Korea-Japan relations. Korea Real Time spoke to people in Seoul about their views on the shelter plan on the islets known locally as Dokdo (and Takeshima by Japan), as well as ongoing disputes with Tokyo. Read More »

Four U.S. experts have weighed in on the debate over whether erroneous reporting by the Asahi newspaper over “comfort women”–women forced to serve Japanese soldiers at wartime brothels–damaged Japan’s international reputation.

The experts said now-discredited testimony by a Japanese man named Seiji Yoshida, who said he had helped abduct Korean women for sexual slavery, didn’t influence U.S. views of the issue. In August, Asahi withdrew articles from the 1980s and 1990s that had cited the testimony. Read More »

South Korea plans to publish a white paper on women forced into sexual slavery by Japan’s military during World War II., the first such report in more than two decades that may fuel tensions between the North Asian neighbors. Read More »

In recent years, Seoul has often raised the case of “comfort women”, claiming Tokyo hasn’t fully compensated the alleged sex slaves to the imperial Japanese military during the occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century.

But some in South Korea say Seoul has a similar problem and must make amends to women the state allegedly forced to provide sexual services for U.S. troops since the end of Korean War. Read More »

A new survey conducted in Japan and South Korea showed that public sentiment toward each other deteriorated sharply over the past year as the two countries — both led by outspoken, nationalistic leaders — sparred over wartime history and a disputed island. Read More »

The agonizing issue of “comfort women” has burst back into the open with a controversial review by the Japanese government of its landmark 1993 apology to the victims.

Peipei Qiu, a professor of Chinese and Japanese at Vassar College, has offered new insights into one of the most traumatic aspects of Japan’s World War II aggression in a book co-authored with two China-based scholars.

As Chinese research into this brutal chapter of wartime history gathers intensity, Beijing is likely to become more vocal on an issue that already deeply divides Japan and South Korea. Read More »

Osaka’s outspoken mayor, Toru Hashimoto, reinserted himself in the debate over the so-called comfort woman issue, saying Japan wasn’t the only nation to engage in sexual violence against women during World War II.

“The allied troops kept raping French women on such a scale that they built comfort stations. This is a historical fact,” Mr. Hashimoto said Sunday atop a campaign truck in a stump speech to a receptive Osaka audience. Read More »

South Korean President Park Geun-hye said Japan’s recent push for a more active military role in the region doesn’t sit well with its neighbors because of the mixed messages Japan’s leadership has been sending about how it views its wartime militarism.

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, President Park maintained a chilly tone toward Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, saying Japan’s political leaders continue to “make comments that seem to contradict” sentiments in government-issued apologies. Read More »

About Korea Real Time

Korea Real Time provides sharp analysis and insight into what’s making news on the Korean peninsula. We chronicle the growing pains of South Korea — a country that has skyrocketed into the club of the world’s richest nations but now faces significant headwinds, and shine a spotlight on one of the world’s biggest geopolitical flashpoints: North Korea. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, we’ll tell the stories behind the headlines in business, economics, politics, culture and lifestyle. You can contact the editors at korearealtime@wsj.com